Kentucky State Police Post One Spokesman Dean Patterson said this week that KSP detectives are increasing their efforts to solve a murder case that’s almost nine years old.

Patterson said that a new investigator has taken over the Chantel Humphries murder case, which has remained unsolved since she was found dead in a field near Cerulean on June 24, 2002.

“It’s still under investigation by the Mayfield post,” Patterson said.

The investigator that had the case for many years was transferred, and the KSP assigned a new detective to that case, Det. Steve Silfies, a man Patterson said has investigated several cold cases as a detective with the KSP.

Patterson said that although they haven’t made any arrests, the KSP is making some progress. “We like to review these cases four times a year, and just go through all the evidence once or twice a year … it just helps to have a different set of eyes on a case sometimes.”

Citizens can forward such information to Det. Silfies at the KSP post in Mayfield, said Patterson, who added that this is an active investigation.

The Kentucky State Police charged a Cadiz man with Humphries’s murder in November 2002, but the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office later dropped those charges.

Humphries’s family has been waiting for closure, hoping that whomever was responsible is found and tried.

When family and friend of Humphries got together to raise awareness in June 2009, Shiquita Baker, Humphries’s daughter, said she wanted to be like her mother, and that she misses her every day. She also said that Humphries was still her “number one,” and urged that those in attendance remember the good things she did.